Wayne Taylor said the possibility to guide his team to the 24 Hours of Le Mans played a key role in his return to Cadillac for the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
He described the prospect of Wayne Taylor Racing competing in the highest round of the Endurance World Championship for the primary time as “one of the factors” behind last week’s decision to maneuver from Acura to Cadillac.
“The chance to do Le Mans was a big part of the change because Acura had indicated they had no plans to do that race, and that is a key part of Cadillac’s program,” Taylor told Motorsport.com.
“For Cadillac, it's a truly global program: WEC and Le Mans are the number one priorities. But America is important because that's where most of the cars are sold, so we'll have two cars in IMSA.”
Taylor has never made any secret of his ambition to take the team he founded for the 2007 season to Le Mans and attempt to duplicate the team’s successes at North America’s premier enduro races – the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
The return to Cadillac, with which WTR won the Daytona IMSA championship 3 times in 4 years (2017-2020), gives the team the chance to race at Le Mans, because the General Motors brand also competes within the WEC with its V-Series.R LMDh automobile.
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque
Photo: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
WEC regulations allow a manufacturer competing within the Hypercar class to enter additional cars within the 24 Hours: up to now two years, Chip Ganassi Racing has entered an extra Cadillac along with its full-season World Championship automobile, while Action Express Racing has also entered one automobile.
Taylor explained that he hopes WTR shall be present on the race, which he has driven in 13 times, next yr.
“I'm an eternal optimist, so I expect to be there until someone tells me otherwise,” Taylor said. “Jota can have two cars within the WEC [when it takes over the factory programme from Ganassi] and we hope that Caddy can have two more such examples to its credit at Le Mans.”
If that happens, it’s likely WTR will get one and Action Express the opposite, Taylor suggested.
WTR has been with Andretti Global since last yr, and Taylor described his return to Cadillac as “coming home.”
He has been with Cadillac parent GM since 1991, when he won a race within the IMSA Chevrolet Intrepid GTP program, then scored a one-two at Daytona and Sebring in 1996 within the Oldsmobile-powered Riley & Scott MkIII World Sports Car. He then became a partner in British organization 3GR, which masterminded the Cadillac Northstar LMP program at Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series in 2001-02.
“If you think about it, I drove for a lot of GM brands: Chevrolet, Oldsmobile Aurora, Pontiac and Cadillac,” Taylor said.
“It's been a very long relationship and the way they've accepted me again is amazing. I really feel like they're embracing me.”
Taylor said he was excited to be working again with Dallara, Cadillac’s partner in the event of the LMDh model.
He worked with the Italian constructor within the international Grand-Am Daytona Prototype and IMSA Daytona Prototype races, and previously raced the Ferrari 333SP WSC, co-built by Dallara, for the Momo/Doran and Risi Competizione teams in IMSA in 1995 and 1998-1999.
“It brought us back to Dallara, which I think is really significant,” Taylor said. “They built us a DP in 2008, and of course I know Giampaolo [Dallara] from the times of 333SP.”
Cadillac announced last week that WTR is returning to its lineup as a part of the expansion of IMSA’s V-Series.R program from two to 3 units: WTR will field two within the GTP division, while Action Express will field one.
WTR was called Wayne Taylor Racing without the “with Andretti” suffix it had been using since last yr, though the statement mentioned a partnership with Andretti Global.
Taylor explained that this can be a “historic event” resulting from the long relationship between WTR and GM and that no decision has been made yet on the team’s name for next yr.
The drivers for the 2025 WTR IMSA race will likely be announced after the IMSA Petit Le Mans race in October.
